SOVEREIGNTY OVER RESOURCES AT STAKE Fishing Ry RICHARD MORGAN ee Canadian halibut j ermen facing slashed fishing es in the Gulf of Alaska and _ Sa mon fishermen looking at a pete Sellout of their resource u face of US. demands for a seer share of salmon bound for ree rivers, the United ine and Allied Workers =a enters its 29th annual con- Bare here Saturday with Ai Columbia’s fishing in- ae at the crossroads. : Se Issues are sure to be “cpoted thoroughly by the 130 5 Bates — from the 49th Parallel to the Alaska Panhandle ope at the seven-day con- aes There are other pressing aren Indian affairs will oc- Ae Prominent portion of the i ne with Tesolutions cover- ‘tion He ndian’s gradual elimina- : Tom the fishing industry and Me ace for Improved medical Indian on! facilities. Native ti is Comprise one third of the ce membership, ™M stand demanding fulfill- pane a B.C. New Democratic vera pen promises — un- Coes Workmen S compensation full Ee for fishermen and the stil paealning rights they are iro enied — can be expected woe Convention. 4nion will press its de- fia for a provincial ministry of ; ‘canes promised by the Utneg «ct Sistent reports ot re industrial HEvElopindat in fish Western: BiG. have ermen Worried that salmon ivers may be in onstruction’ of installations. demand full con- fishermen before € put into effect. i € Issues will appear uae Context of the anu eeon: livers Struggle to win a better shen 0od for fishermen and , se workers-as British Colum- 1g foreign-owned nopolias — B.C. nd the Canadian ll of thes (Tease their Itv between the : fishermen, like : - are paid f PPROduea Paid for their ‘Produce. and the inflated prices US. crisis W terecent guest of the (pees Central Union of Cuba ‘ ES at its historic 13th SS, Was surprised to Upon a relerence to that _S in the Seattle Post- hatlligencer I was ane Naveen the Congress was held . a €r 11 to 15, 1973 and the ‘ Was dated January 14, 1974. Sorter’ Was entitled “Too We ioe larxism — Castro”. It Ongteee erated report on the ©°Sss at all but the Seattle Media's additional con- ten ee the world wide cam- Derialisny international im- alse | Against detente. It was ‘ an Attempt to belittle the Cu in pears made by the Cadarct eOPle under the eeeestn of Castro and his par- a lime when the U.S. is in P of a crisis. the gri * ERASE ik: DISGRACE as... In April, 1972, fishermen joined hundreds of othes frade unionists in Victoria protesting against the Socreds’ repressive Bills 3 and 88 and at the same time pressed for collective bargaining rights and workmen's compen- sation for fishermen. Although an NDP government replaced the Socred and a new labor code was enacted, fishermen continue to be denied bargining and compensation rights. that consumers are forced to pay, will be examined by the con- vention. C.S. Jackson, president of the United Electrical Workers, read- mitted last year along with the UFAWU to the Canadian Labor Congress. is an invited speaker. He will be joined by CLC secretary-treasurer Bill Dodge. B.C. Federation of Labor secretary Len Guy and B.C. ‘recreation and conservation minister Jack Radford. Burnaby mayor Tom Constable will open the convention. Members of Metis groups from Alberta. Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories will attend the convention as fraternal delegates. Workers in the freshwater fisheries: there are without union representation though pressure for union organization is growing. UFAWU business agent George Hewison summed up the issues before the convention. “Canada is at the crossroads on the issue of her sovereignty.” he said. “And it’s going to require the combined pressure of all trade unionists and progressive- minded Canadians to ensure that this country’s resources — whether they be energy or fish —— are used for the benefit of the Canadian people and not sacrific- ed to some continental concept with its headquarters in Wall Sie Federal environment minister Jack Davis, no favorite of fishermen since the introduction of his monopoly-favoring salmon licence limitation program in the late sixties. will run the fishermen’s gauntlet on Monday. Davis and his staff can expect a barrage of questions on the issue of Canada-U.S. salmon talks and the reciprocal rights treaty which covers mutual intercep- tions at sea of salmon bound for Canadian and U.S. rivers. “With Canada seemingly wiil- ing to acquiesce for the sake of a treaty. any treaty, the situation looms as one of the greatest sellouts of the salmon resource ever.” the UFAWU. general ex- ecutive board stated in its call to convention. The refusal of the. Trudeau cabinet to support a relatively strong position taken by Cana- dian negotiators has forced them to retreat in the face of progressively stronger demands by the United States, which seems to have lost sight com- pletely of the fact that the Fraser is a Canadian river. “It is time tor the Canadian public to be fully informed and the convention is the instrument for the beginning of such a dis- closure.” the board stated. At its annual convention last fall the B.C. Federation of Labor unanimously approved a resolu- tion by UFAWU New West- minster local demanding the federal government tell the U.S. it rejects their claims to Cana- dian salmon. Recent U.S. proposals in bilateral talks would give the Americans 2.1 million out of each five million Fraser River sockeye salmon. The resolution called on the Canadian government “to ap- propriate the necessary funds to develop and enhance the salmon industry at crossroads potential on the Fraser River solely with Canadian funds and for the exclusive use of Canadians. and authorize the im- mediate steps necesary to en- force Canada’s claims to what is rightfully hers and to overcome the United States’ arrogant claim to Canadian salmon.” The minsiter is also expected to be criticized for his licensing schemes which now extend into the expanded herring fishery and which give the monopolies even greater control over production. A.20-man union delegation. as well as other industry represen- tatives. started several days: of meetings in Seattle Monday of this week with the International Pacific Halibut) Commission, which has proposed a catch quota of only 10 million pounds this year in the Gulf of Alaska. The quota last vear was 25 million pounds. d The commission has already proposed a two-year closure in the Bering Sea halibut fishery applicable to Canadian and U.S. fishermen who are increasingly embittered about having to bear the brunt of enforced conserva- tion efforts while foreign fleets continue to fish virtually un- restricted. The UFAWU has pointed repeatedly to the inadequacies of the present North Pacific fisheries treaty concluded amid a cold war atmosphere in the early fifties between Canada. the United States and Japan. The Soviet Union and South Korea, -who mount major fisheries in the - North Pacific and Bering Sea. are excluded from the treaty now regarded by most Canadian fishermen as worthless. The union has stressed that a new, all-nation treaty is the only solution in a fishery fast ap- proaching the point of no return. It urges Canada to take the diplomatic offensive by conven- ing a conference of represen- tatives of all nations fishing the North Pacific and all nations likely to do so, to discuss the crisis in the halibut fishery and to attempt to conclude an all- inclusive North Pacific treaty. prompted lies about Cuban Labor Congress The P.I. reported: ‘Fidel Castro has decided his, coun- trymen. . . are not yet ready to live under communism” and the paper continues, “‘so he has bent the Karl Marx philosophy a bit to conform to Cuban experience.” Its uncanny, how quickly such newspapers become experts on Marxist theory when they want to distort the truth, What Castro said, and what the 13th Congress was all about. was the giant steps taken from capitalism into the beginnings of socialism. The main theme of the Congress was “from each accor- ding to his capacity to each ac- cording to his work.” This is the main Marxist slogan formulated by Marx himself to characterize the transitional period between the overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism, Certainly and correct- lv. Castro pointed out that the Cuban economy was still a long way from communism, when people would be able to live un- der the Marxist slogan “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. but recognizing this fact is a long way from the inference of the EIB. Further on in the article the P.I. had this to say: “Castro also made another un- characteristic admission. He said it takes many more workers to carry out the same duties in . ‘Cuba's sugar mills now than it did under their American owners prior to his takeover in 1959". He added, “the fault is ours, because we have not been capable of developing administrative ef- ficiency so that it can at least be equal to that of the capitalists.” So spoke the Seattle P.I. on January 14, 1974. Let’s examine the statements. In the first place Fidel Castro has been noted for his speeches to audiences of thousands in which. he has meticulously demonstrated the shortcomings. recognizing they were there, so as to be in a better ‘position to overcome them. In the second place. so-called capitalist efficiency is based on speed-up, fear of unemployment. All these tactors are absent in the new Cuba where American imperialism no longer holds sway. There is no place in a developing socialist economy for speed-up or unemployment, and Cuba like all socialist countries has a labor shortage. So it is quite easy to understand that with economic security guaranteed. the fear of un- employment gone forever, a cer- tain amount of tardiness could and did take place among honest but uneducated workers. That is what the main theme of the Congress was directed at. the educating of the workers to the fact that the more the country produced the greater return there would be for everyone. The 13th Congress marked the high point of debate on the all im- portant question of the main direction which the Cuban work- ing class was taking. For months before the Congress in every mill and plant, local discussions took place. and delegates were elected. with the result that 2,234 local representatives were seated at the five day Congress. One would wonder why the Seattle paper would take time out to try and discredit the 13th Congress weeks after the event. until one sees other sections of the paper where the international conspiracy to destroy detente through the Sakharov- Solzhenitsyn fraud is given great play. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1974—PAGE 3